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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


This 'demonically Clever' Backdoor Hides In a Tiny Slice of a Computer Chip
From ACM News

This 'demonically Clever' Backdoor Hides In a Tiny Slice of a Computer Chip

Security flaws in software can be tough to find. Purposefully planted ones—hidden backdoors created by spies or saboteurs—are often even stealthier.

Digital Forensics: From the Crime Lab to the Library
From ACM News

Digital Forensics: From the Crime Lab to the Library

When archivists at California's Stanford University received the collected papers of the late palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould in 2004, they knew right away they...

Study of 1 Million Sites Shows Just How Closely We're Watched
From ACM News

Study of 1 Million Sites Shows Just How Closely We're Watched

The web is watching you. Chunks of code hide inside every website, tracking your online behaviour.

Doubling Down on Schrodinger's Cat
From ACM TechNews

Doubling Down on Schrodinger's Cat

A team of Yale University researchers has created a more exotic version of the classic Schrodinger's cat paradox. 

Jumproach Is a Robotic Bug That Leaps and Flips Just Like an Insect
From ACM TechNews

Jumproach Is a Robotic Bug That Leaps and Flips Just Like an Insect

Researchers say they have developed a new kind of jumping mechanism for robots that has the potential to scale from tiny hops to a catapult launch. 

'super Mario Brothers' Is Hard
From ACM TechNews

'super Mario Brothers' Is Hard

Researchers found the problem of solving a level in the "Super Mario Brothers" video game is as challenging as the most vexing problems in the PSPACE complexity...

Tech Turns to Biology as Data Storage Needs Explode
From ACM News

Tech Turns to Biology as Data Storage Needs Explode

Researchers have decoded the genomes of mammoths and a 700,000-year-old horse using DNA fragments extracted from fossils in the past few years. DNA clearly persists...

Rosetta's Comet Contains Ingredients For Life
From ACM News

Rosetta's Comet Contains Ingredients For Life

Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two...

Nasa Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap
From ACM News

Nasa Radar Finds Ice Age Record in Mars' Polar Cap

Scientists using radar data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found a record of the most recent Martian ice age recorded in the planet's north...

Two-Hundred-Terabyte Maths Proof Is Largest Ever
From ACM News

Two-Hundred-Terabyte Maths Proof Is Largest Ever

Three computer scientists have announced the largest-ever mathematics proof: a file that comes in at a whopping 200 terabytes1, roughly equivalent to all the digitized...

Self-Driving Truck Acts Like an Animal
From ACM TechNews

Self-Driving Truck Acts Like an Animal

The traditional way of developing vehicles may not work when developing future autonomous vehicles.

The Pipes Powering the Internet Are Nearly Full--What Do We Do?
From ACM TechNews

The Pipes Powering the Internet Are Nearly Full--What Do We Do?

The optical fibers that transmit data throughout the Internet have almost reached their capacity limits.

The Algorithm That Can Predict When a Tsunami Will Strike
From ACM TechNews

The Algorithm That Can Predict When a Tsunami Will Strike

Australian National University researchers have developed an algorithm that can recreate the movements of a typical tsunami to determine its threat level.

Push For Encryption Law Falters Despite Apple Case Spotlight
From ACM News

Push For Encryption Law Falters Despite Apple Case Spotlight

After a rampage that left 14 people dead in San Bernardino, key U.S. lawmakers pledged to seek a law requiring technology companies to give law enforcement agencies...

Artificial Intelligence Is Far From Matching Humans, Panel Says
From ACM News

Artificial Intelligence Is Far From Matching Humans, Panel Says

Never mind Terminator-like killer robots. Artificial intelligence researchers are grappling with more realistic questions like whether their creations will take...

Illuminating Life's Building Blocks
From ACM News

Illuminating Life's Building Blocks

Biophysicist Joerg Bewersdorf says that 2006 was fluorescence microscopy's annus mirabilis—a 'miraculous year' as momentous in its own way as 1905, when Albert...

Meet Terrapattern, Google Earth's Missing Search Engine
From ACM News

Meet Terrapattern, Google Earth's Missing Search Engine

"Why don't you click on the tennis court?" Golan Levin, an associate professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested.  

Japanese-Language Myshake App Crowdsources Earthquake Shaking
From ACM TechNews

Japanese-Language Myshake App Crowdsources Earthquake Shaking

Researchers have released a Japanese version of an application that crowdsources ground-shaking information from smartphones to detect earthquakes. 

Mental Health Alerts via Facebook?
From ACM TechNews

Mental Health Alerts via Facebook?

Social media data could be used to detect and track at-risk youth and mental health patients.

Shortened ­rls May Open a Window on Your Life
From ACM TechNews

Shortened ­rls May Open a Window on Your Life

The trend of using shortened URLs offers a new opportunity for hackers to invade users' privacy, according to Cornell Tech researchers. 
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